Beard Frequency Mods!

[textilemonster]

Yes, you read that right.
Ever played an historical game with fake players and been annoyed that players were being generated with era-inappropriate facial hair frequencies?
...just me?
Well anyway, I went and looked at the photos of every player in 1880, 1948, and 1979, tried to match their facial hair to what the game had, calculated frequencies, and then turned them into .txt files like the game's default beard frequency file. So not only can you now import the beard frequency files to adjust what facegen does, you now also know that you can import beard frequency files to adjust what facegen does!

beard_frequency_19th_century.txt

beard_frequency_golden_era.txt

beard_frequency_seventies.txt

The 19th century one features a lot of mustaches but few beards. The golden era is almost completely cleanshaven. The seventies sees a lot of thick mustaches, full beards, but still plenty of clean faces and a few fancier styles.

[crazyjoedavola]

great work there amigo, and thanks for sharing your talents!

[textilemonster]

Thanks!

[dw001da]

Wow - I thought I was the only one driven crazy by the beards! Much appreciated!

So sorry to be "that guy," but ... can you please do more of these?

[textilemonster]

Originally Posted by dw001da

Wow - I thought I was the only one driven crazy by the beards! Much appreciated!

So sorry to be "that guy," but ... can you please do more of these?

Any specific time periods, or...?

Because I've got zero ideas. I've only noticed a few facial hair trends in MLB, which I think I've covered, and I'm not creative enough to create, like, fictional facial hair distributions.

[dw001da]

Originally Posted by textilemonster

Any specific time periods, or...?

Because I've got zero ideas. I've only noticed a few facial hair trends in MLB, which I think I've covered, and I'm not creative enough to create, like, fictional facial hair distributions.

No, I hear you. Despite it being a minor to moderate pet peeve of mine, it's not like there's real data on anything so I gave up that particular ghost some years back. You actually went in and manually mined some data, which is ultra-ambitious and far beyond anything I've attempted. This is me just encouraging you to keep up that energy, if you're so inclined.

At some point, I did run into this article from Business Insider from 2018: https://www.businessinsider.com/evol...l-hair-2018-11

It now seems to be behind a paywall, but here's the text without the photos it references:

Facial hair has a long and complicated history that dates back long before celebrities — like Chris Hemsworth, Prince Harry, and Donald Glover — brought their perfectly groomed beards to the mainstream.

In fact, during the Middle Ages and the 16th century, men were known to grow full beards. At one point, Charles Darwin even believed that beards were a symbol of power used to attract women, and he tried to prove that bearded men are better at procreating. At other times in history, beards were considered uncleanly and inappropriate.

Keep reading to learn more about how facial hair has evolved over the past 200 years.

1800s: Sideburns
General Ambrose Burnside inspired the sideburn look. Wikimedia Commons

Before the late 1860s, facial hair was viewed as radical. But as the US entered into the Civil War, facial hair quickly became a symbol of masculinity and power. One of the popular styles was called "sideburns," which is a bushy beard with a clean-shaven chin. The look was inspired by Civil War General Ambrose Burnside. In fact, his last name, Burnside, was first used to describe the style, but this later evolved into "sideburns."

1860s: Chin curtain or chin strap
Abraham Lincoln inspired the chin curtain. Wikimedia Commons

When Abraham Lincoln became president in 1861, he ushered in a new beard style that caught on with many men: the "chin curtain." For those who didn't want to sport the sideburn look, they chose to grow their beard along the jawline and clean-shave the mustache.

1890: Full beards
President Rutherford B. Hayes inspired the full beard look. Wikimedia Commons

Like Abraham Lincoln, presidents Rutherford Hayes and James Garfield sparked another facial hairstyle, and one that we are more used to today: the full beard. Towards the end of the 19th century, men embraced a fuller — and sometimes unkempt — look when it came to their facial hair.

Early 1900s: Handlebar mustache
President Taft inspired the handlebar mustache. Wikimedia Commons

In Europe, men started sculpting their beards into mustaches during World War I because it was difficult to put on gas masks with a full beard. Once the war ended, a mustache revolution took over. President William Howard Taft then helped make the "handlebar mustache" popular in the US by curling the ends up towards the eyes.

1920s: Mustaches
Charles Laughton plays Hercule Poirot in a 1928 film, wearing the famous mustache. Hulton Archive/ Getty

In the '20s, the mustache became the most popular style for men to sport. Some tribute the popularity to Agatha Christie's famous mustached protagonist Hercule Poirot from "The Mysterious Affair at Styles." The BBC also cites the boom of Hollywood's leading men — like Clark Gable, Errol Flynn, and Ronald Colman — who all donned the mustache look.

1930s: Toothbrush mustache
The style disappeared after World War II and Adolf Hitler. Bundesarchiv

The toothbrush mustache is most famous for the last person to wear it — Adolf Hitler. Today the look is considered offensive, but back in the 1930s, the trimmed down mustache was a very popular look among men, especially in Europe. Even Walt Disney wore the style at the time. In a New York Times article from 1908, they said a man's toothbrush mustache was a "characteristic of his class." But the style disappeared after World War II for obvious reasons.

1940s: Pencil mustache
Clark Gables in "Gone with the Wind." Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

When "Gone With the Wind" premiered in 1939, it sparked a new facial hair style thanks to the film's leading man, Clark Gables. His thin 'stache inspired another spin on the look by thinning the mustache and bringing it closer to the upper lip. The look is called the "pencil mustache." At the time, it was meant to look dignified, prompting many famous men to choose the thinner look, like writer George Orwell and musician Sammy Davis Jr.

1950s: Goatee
Jazz musician Thelonious Monk wearing a goatee. Evening Standard/ Getty

During the '50s in the US, most men were clean-shaven, but facial hair continued to flourish in creative communities. As the US entered a cultural Renaissance of sorts in the '50s, artists crafted their facial hair into what is now known as a goatee, which allows for hair to grow solely around the mouth. The style started with jazz musicians but quickly spread to other artists.

1970s: Horseshoe mustache
Hulk Hogan is known for his horseshoe mustache. Jonathan Daniel. Getty

While Hulk Hogan is most associated with the famous "horseshoe mustache," there are a number of other people who helped bring this facial hairstyle into the mainstream. Metallica frontman James Hetfield and Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose both sported the "pornstache" — a horseshoe-shaped mustache that frames the mouth with two parallel lines of hair. You can also find this style in many biker groups that started to pop up in the '70s.

1980s: The Chevron mustache
Tom Selleck popularized the Chevron. Hulton Archive/ Getty

In the 1980s, mustaches became fuller, thicker, and dipped just below the upper lip. The look became known as the Chevron and was made popular by actor Tom Selleck.

Early 2000s: Five o'clock shadow
Brad Pitt often chose the stubble look. Kevin Winter/ Getty

At the turn of the century, the unkempt look started to become popular. A five o'clock shadow or some stubble was considered attractive. It was popular among movie stars like Brad Pitt and George Clooney.

Today: Lumbersexuals
Chris Hemsworth sometimes appears with a full beard. Rich Polk/ Getty

While stubble is still popular today, men now prefer donning a full beard that is expertly manicured and styled. It can be seen on a number of celebrities like Chris Hemsworth, Idris Elba, and even Prince Harry, who kept is beard for his royal wedding in an unusual move for a prince.

[textilemonster]

Originally Posted by dw001da

A LOT OF STUFF ABOUT THE CULTURAL HISTORY OF BEARDS

Abbreviated so the quote isn't a massive wall of text, but you bring up a good point: baseball was pretty cleanshaven between about 1900 and about 1975, but I don't know how much of that was artificially created by clubs having strict policies on facial hair. How might baseball have looked in the 40s or 60s if players had been allowed to wear facial hair?

I don't know, and I don't really know how to extrapolate. I'm just a stickler for historical accuracy. Currently, I'm working on finding a very specific Old English font because the mod I'm using for 19th century logos and uniforms used a slightly different font for some of them than were used in real life--emphasis on 'slightly'.

[Bobble]

I'm glad you did this mod. I feel like the default beard frequency file doesn't utilize all the beards like it should and overuses just a few (especially one I particularly don't like). One of the first things I do when I start a game is change the beard freqs to my own custom file.

I'm especially interested in the facial hair because I did the original facial hair mod that the dev team modified and included in the game.